While
these sorts of stories go on and on, some readers certainly had good things
to say about the towing services. One allows how he’s already had
reasons—grounding, running out of fuel, engine failures—to call
his tower four times and has always been treated very well and at no charge.
He plans to be a member for life. Even the ALL CAPS writer quoted above,
who does an East Coast roundtrip in his sportfisherman every winter, notes
that his two bad experiences were in stark contrast to the exceptional
service he received when mired in some North Carolina waterway mud:

That
operator came to us with a clean boat, took depth soundings with a painted
pole, mapped our escape, checked to make sure my coverage was up to date
(it wasn’t), updated my coverage, and guided us through that part
of the I.C.W.

One
correspondent objects to the entire article and suggests that we shouldn’t
be publishing such “whiner stories”:

Ellison’s
slanted article did a disservice to the emerging towing industry. Companies
like this have brought legitimacy to a great service for the boating community...
If generous awards weren’t there, no one is going to come to the
rescue.

Ellison’s
article was amazingly unbiased... where the boat owner is nervous, the
price of assistance should be given to him in writing. This could be done
very easily if the tow operator used plastic capsules passed with the
tow line. One capsule might say, “This is a covered service,”
while another stated, “This is a salvage operation and the cost will
be based on the value of the saved boat.”

Read
altogether, the mail seems to confirm the ambivalent conclusions of my
first article, but further suggests that the issues are so rampant and
so strongly felt that all parties should be trying hard to improve the
situation. Boaters need to realize that marine salvage law has a 3,000-year
history with few parallels ashore, while the phenomenon of mixing salvage
with recreational service towing is only a little more than a decade old.
We have not fully adapted yet.

For
instance, one reader took me to task for not stating “what degree
of damage the (Hillsboro) hull suffered to confirm degree of ‘peril.’”
He wanted details of engine and bilge condition to better “understand
what steps to take with a towing service to determine when a rescue can
be viewed as salvage operation.” But it doesn’t work that way.
Salvage law recognizes that a vessel in peril might suffer no damage whatsoever
because the salvor worked so quickly and successfully.

Similarly,
many readers felt that the $30,000 Hillsboro settlement must be due to
insurance company laziness or poorly crafted regulations or something—it
could not be “right.” But, in fact, judges have repeatedly affirmed
these sorts of claims. Salvage law, which will not be changed easily,
treats claims not as pay but as reward, and the salvor’s own time
and expense are fairly low on the prioritized criteria for determining
that reward.